A situation like Ferguson gets so much attention in the U.S. because it strikes at the root fears of roughly two-thirds of the American ideological pie.

Those who react strongly to racism -- the liberal-minded crowd.

And those who react strongly to a daunting government -- libertarians or far-right folk.

Normally, these two ideologies are foes, but they have a common concern in Ferguson. So from Mother Jones to Alex Jones, writers are chiming in on the greater problems exemplified by the tragedy in Missouri.

To the liberal-minded person, the problem is the never-ceasing scourge of racism in America. And worse than the examples of racism starring an individual who looks down on a certain group, we have in Ferguson the workings of institutional racism, a phenomenon of immeasurable scale keeping outside groups from having a chance at equality.

To the libertarian-leaner, we see the ever-growing Leviathan whose tentacles are now reaching suburban USA, with police-state militarization down Main Street.

Then on the sidelines of this issue are conservatives -- not solely because of racial apathy (as many suggest), but simply because conservatives -- white, black, or brown -- aren't alarmed by an aggressive police force. Their fear isn’t triggered.

Conservatives do get involved, though -- secondarily, as their deeper fears are alerted not by the incident itself, but by the reaction to it, when riots begin, when the media portrays a mythological narrative of devil and angel to describe the shooter and the victim. These strike at the root of American conservative ideology, and so gets these people to raise their voice and act.

It’s all about a group’s deepest fears. And this explains why the reaction to Ferguson has been so great.

Too great.   

To Alex Jones and his ilk, I challenge: Is a police state really going to take over the country? Or are these the concerns of an ideology obsessed with the threat of government?

And to Mother Jones and company: Is the threat of racism to blacks worse than the threats to blacks otherwise?

A tragedy occurred in Ferguson, and the wounds for Michael Brown’s family will never heal. This incident is worthy of alarm and reaction. But if overall health and peace of the nation are the goals -- even if directed toward the plight of blacks in the U.S. -- then the anger over the Ferguson tragedy, while ignoring the deaths of hundreds of inner-city youths, is akin to hoarding over your wallet while the burglars are behind your back stealing your safe.

To most of the American public, though, Michael Brown’s death is more important than the many people regularly killed in Chicago’s south side. And this is because fear skews our perspective. Because libertarians see a cop-committed murder as worse than civilian-on-civilian one, and liberals see a white-on-black killing as worse than a black-on-black death. 

It’s easier now for me to see how America’s hyper-reactivity affects what goes on within the American societal bubble. I now live in Tanzania. And beyond a general observation about America’s fear from this perspective, one particular manifestation of this fear -- that of white privilege -- has taken on a new light since I moved to East Africa for an eight-month assignment.

I’ve come across several writings inspired by Ferguson about white privilege. As a white man in Tanzania for the past seven months (and having lived in China before that), I’ve learned to respect the validity of American white privilege in part by recognizing how ordinary America is for having one race define a country.

I have seen the foreign equivalents of American white privilege in the two countries in which I have lived. And recently I met an African American who lived in Norway for eight months. In his case, as well as mine living abroad, privilege for the majority and founding race in the nations we’ve lived is simply treated as a given. There's no controversy around “yellow privilege” in China. Such privilege is obvious and simply the way it is.

Americans aren't as likely to see this now, as many are in a glass-half-empty mode these days, but it says something pretty cool about the U.S. that there is a platform for groups to demand equality -- not just in terms of individual rights, but in popular culture and employment as well. In most countries, it’s not even on the minds, let along the mouths, of those in the groups who are outnumbered.

By living abroad, I’ve realized America is special and would yet improve if her citizen’s lowered their fear and reactivity. I recently engaged in a conversation with an American friend who cited white privilege and the plight of African Americans as exemplified by the “flesh” color on band aids being for white people's skin. I think Americans would benefit from understanding that that such examples are not that of plight nor oppression and the fear of such has messed with their priorities -- that they focus all their energy on one racially motivated, cop-committing killing all the while ignoring far greater numbers of murders elsewhere within the country.